Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go. – E.L. Doctorow
So I’ve always likened teaching writing to painting a room in the house. It takes so long to collect all of the materials, pouring the paint from the can into the paint tray can be messy, taping off trim is tedious, cutting into the edges of the room is time consuming and then there is all of those missed spots once the light hits the room. But once the roller hits that wall and the paint dries, the room is bright, fresh and clean leaving that great soothing feeling of satisfaction in a beautiful room in which to sit back and relax.
That is indeed what writing is for me and my students. A hot mess getting the ball rolling but little glimmers of light shining in on their papers provide a glimpse into the beauty of what they really have to say.
Now, take that same method of teaching to write and throw in a computer, blogging platform and IT connectivity issues. All I can say is fasten you seatbelts, this is going to be REALLY messy. I take on this crazy idea to get my students to write on a topic they are most interested in and blog about it. I give them very explicit instruction on the types of posts to write, provide them with opening bell ringers to elicit their opinions on their topic and then give them time to free write. Not bad, although this time of year not many are still motivated but I’m hellbent on saving the world so I don’t let up. The results are messy and not great but at least its something we can work with.
Now I take them to their blogging platform online that I have vetted as the most user friendly and have tried out extensively myself. I’ve planned for weeks, scripted the lessons and troubleshooted every imaginable obstacle I think I may come up against. But low and behold, all permissions for blogging are blocked through our safe and secure school district’s wifi. Ah, yes, thank goodness! We certainly wouldn’t want our youth writing on a blog or seeing others’ controversial writings. It is far more important that they be allowed permissions to access YouTube where they can view Kodak Black videos for their educational experiences instead. (No offense Kodak… just trying to make a point here.) So after countless e-mails to IT, and working on the back end of the blogging platform where they weren’t even able to see how their blogs looked, the kids feverishly put out their very first posts today. And although they aren’t finished (or proofed for that matter), it was truly great to sit back ‘once the paint dried’ today and watch their shear delight in seeing their writing make it to the internet. They were in disbelief! “OMG Miss…. that’s my post” they would say when they pulled up their blogs on their cell phones to view.
Well, I’ve been checking their blogs throughout the day to see if there may have been any changes to them ; maybe they would have been interested enough and proud enough to go and add, delete, edit and write more? Sure enough, they have caught the bug. We’ve definitely much more work to do before the ‘paint’ is dry, but through that mess of splatters and drips, the light is shining in and all I can say is boy, that room is really starting to look beautiful!
Feel free to visit us at Voices from the Empire to take you to our class blog that has been providing them support with the blogging process and where their links are currently featured. Although they are not officially up and running yet, I remain hopeful that they’ll build themselves as writers. 
